Locking-clip.



L. STEINBERGER.

LOCKING cur.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.21| 1912 Fig. i-

m a 21 1 g 16 20 17 a Fig (/15 "it I i 12 lllllnwmw 18 pnrrnn srarns PATENT option.

LOUIS STEINBERGER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

LOCKING-CLIP.

Application filed September 21, 1 912.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that 1, Louis STEINBERGER, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented cer tain new and useful Improvements in Looking-Clips, of which the following is a specification. 1

This invention relates to locking clips, such as are commonly used for supporting electric conductors employed in power transmissions and particularly in electric railway service, in which instance the locking clip is used to support the overhead trolley wire suspended from a span wire or similar support, the locking clip being adapted to engage and be directly carried by an insulated bolt pendent from a hanger, commonly known as a pull-over, which is, in turn, supported by the span wire.

The hangers, or pull-overs, commonly employed in supporting the overhead trolley wires, comprise an arm, or a pair of arms, which depend upon one or both sides of the insulated bolt. The clip, for directly engaging and supporting the trolley wire,

preferably should be of greater length than the space between these arms, but such length is impossible of use, owing to the fact that, as commonly constructed, the clip must be rotated about a point centrally of its length for screwing a properly threaded laterally extending portion, at said central point, into relatively fixed relation with the lower end of the insulated bolt carried by the hanger.

In the operation of screwing the clip upon the lower end of the bolt, as these parts are commonly constructed, it obviously becomes necessary that the relative rotation between the parts, for accomplishing the screwing operation, necessitates either a detachment of the clip from the supported conductor or a detachment of the hanger from the span wire either of which operations, especially when repeated for a great number of times in installing or repairing a system, results in the waste of considerable time and is therefore always expensive.

Recognizing the unquestioned advantages of supporting devices of this general class, and also recognizing the inherent disadvantages of the features of construction, as above referred to, the principal object of this invention is to provide a means whereby the clip may be readily attached or detached from the hanger without necessity for de* Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 11, 1915. Serial No. 721,695.

taching the hanger from the span wire or for detaching the clip from the conductor, and even without necessity for rotating the clip and hanger relative to each other, thus enabling the use of desirably long clips.

Among the other important objects of the nvention may be enumerated the follow mg 2-1. To provide a simple and inexpensive construction for the clip, so that it may be attached quickly and easily on to the in sulated bolt of the hanger without necessity for relative rotation between the clip and the hanger. II. To provide the clip with means adapted to engage the insulated bolt of the hanger and to cooperate therewith to retain the clip in any desired radial position relatively to the longitudinal axis of the insulated bolt and adapted to positively prevent accidental detachment of the clip from the bolt. III. To provide the clip with a separately formed part adapted to engage the insulated bolt and to have swivel engagement with the clip proper and to connect the separately formed part so that it 'may be readily detached for substitution by a similar part having a different sized portion for engaging the hanger bolt, whereby the clip proper may be used in connection with different sized hanger bolts by the substitution of different sized separately formed parts corresponding to the size of the given hanger bolt. IV. To provide the locking clip with a separately formed part adapted to have relatively. rigid engagement with the hanger bolt, and to connect the separately formed part so that it may be easily detached from the clip proper without necessity for detaching the separately formed part from the hanger bolt. V. To provide the locking clip with a separately formed part having threads adapted to engage corresponding threads on the hanger bolt, and to provide a swivel engagement of the separately formed part with the locking clip proper, the arrangement being such that the separately formed part may serve to clamp the locking clip proper into rately formed part carrying aplurality of detachable pins for extending into said an nular groove, whereby the separately formed part is given a swivel connection with the locking clip proper, and to provide the separately formed part with threads for mating threads on the hanger bolt, whereby to draw the plane surface of the locking clip proper into clamping relation with the end of the hanger bolt, and all whereby the locking clip may be rigidly clamped to the hanger bolt in any radial position, or detached from the hanger bolt, by rotation of said separately formed member, without interfering with the radial relation between the bolt and the clip and consequently without necessity for detaching the hanger from the span wire or the clip from the conduc- V tor. V11. To provide means interengaging between the locking clip and the hanger bolt, whereby said parts may have free rotation relatively to each other, where such freedom of rotation is desirable, without af more or less specific than those referred to above, will be in part obvious and in part pointed out in the course of the following description of the elements, combinations, arrangements of parts and applications of principles, constituting the invention; and the scope of protection contemplated will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as a part of this specification,

and in which I have shown a merely pre ferred form of embodiment of the invention:

Fi ure 1 1s a view artl 111 elevation and b v u I u partly in section, showing the improved locking clip in position upon a double pullover or hanger, and supporting a conductor wire; Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the locking clip, showing in Fig. 1, said view being taken substantiallyon the plane of line 22, Fig. 1, and illustrating a portion of the hanger in transverse section; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a hanger and clip, as shown in the previous figures; Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the separately formed a. part of the locking clip; Fig. 5 is a transverse vertically sectional view through said separately formed part; and Fig. 6 is an end elevational view of the clip proper clearly illustrating the portion thereof which projects into, and cooperates with,

the separately formed part to provide swivel connection .therewith.

Referring to the drawing for describing the invention in detail, the reference numeral 1 indicates, generally, the hanger, said hanger being illustrated as of the double pull-over type having a central inverted cup shaped portion 2 and oppositely disposed downwardly turned arms 3, said arms having closed eyes 4: at their lower ends for engagement with supporting span wires 5.

The hollow cup shaped portion 2 is filled with an insulating material 6, and the hanger bolt 7 is embedded therein, having a' head 8 at its upper end arranged above suitable reinforceing ears 9 formed within the cup, about which ears the insulating material 6 is molded, the ears serving to more effectually retain the insulating material, and the bolt, within the cup. The lower end of the bolt projects below the insulating material, and is formed with a flange 10 engaging the lower surface portion of said insulating material. The pro jecting portion of the bolt 7, below the flange 10, is threaded as at 11, said threaded portion extending preferably below the lower edge of the cup shaped portion 2. The lower end of the bolt is preferably,

though not necessarily, planed smooth, or

ing clip is formed with an enlarged laterally projecting portion providing an annular shoulder 15, above which projects an an nular stud 16, formed with an annular groove 17. The upper end of the stud 16 is preferably planed smooth or otherwise prepared to furnish a friction surface adapted in use, to engage the under friction surface of the end of the hanger bolt.

The separately formed member of the hanger clip is indicated by the numeral 18 and 1 comprises asleeve having internal threads in its upper portion, as at 19, adapted to mate the threads 11 on the end portion of the hanger bolt, and having its outer surface -multifaced to facilitate the application of a wrench for attaching or detaching the member from the threads of the-hanger bolt. The lower portion, as 20, of the sleeve is without threads, and is adapted to fit snugly over the stud 16,015 the locking clip proper. V

Extending through the material of the member 18. and opening into the portion 20 thereof, are a plurality of threaded apertures 21, arranged to coincide with theanbeen practically impossible.

nular groove 17, when the parts are assembled, and substantial screws 22 are detachably threaded into these apertures and project into the groove 17.

The proportions of the parts are preferably such that, considering the sleeve 18 to be swiveled upon the stud 16 of the locking clip, through the medium of the groove 17 and pins 22, the upper surface of the stud 16 will contact with the under surface of the hanger bolt before the upper edge of the sleeve would engage the under surface of the flange 10 on the bolt. Thus the sleeve may be rotated to clamp the locking clip tight against the under surface of the bolt, and the friction thus set up, not only between the under surface of the bolt and the upper surface of the stud 16, but between the screws 22 and the walls of the annular groove 17, with the friction in the threads interengaging between the sleeve and the bolt, will effectually retain the locking clip against rotation relatively to the bolt when these parts are sufficiently tightly I a dj usted. The screws 22 may also be screwed tight against the bottom wall of the groove 17, if desired, for more effectually preventingrelative rotation between the clip and the bolt, and for preventing unintentional 1rotation of the sleeve about the stud and volt.

It is obvious from the illustrations, and from the above description of the operation, that the locking clip may be rigidly connected with the conductor wire, and that the hanger may also be rigidly connected with the span wire, if desired, before any effort is made to connect the locking clip with the hanger, an operation which has'heretofore The clip is readily connected to the hanger bolt by introducing the end of the bolt into the threaded portion of the sleeve 18 and rotating the sleeve. Disengagement between the parts may be as readily accomplished by rotation of the sleeve in a reverse direction. The clip may be placed in any position radially of the hanger and the sleeve rotated to lock it in such position and the screws 22 set to lock the sleeve to the clip, or the sleeve may be rotated only sufficiently to properly connect the clip to the bolt, and yet leave it free to swivel unrestrainedly relatively to the bolt upon the screws 22. It

' is however usually preferable to tighten down the screws 22 to lock the sleeve to the clip for the reason that in this condition it is almost absolutely impossible for the sleeve to work loose from the bolt under the effect of constant vibration, produced by passing trolley wheels or otherwise. The trolley wires usually maintain the clip against any appreciable rotation, and the clip cannot, under any circumstances, ro-

-' tate farther than to strike the legs 3 of the hanger, so that so long as the screws are tight the sleeve cannot disengage itself from the bolt and all the parts are efiectively and the clip may be given any desirable 7 length, because of the fact that there is no necessity for rotation of the clip relatively to the hanger, such as would require the legs of the hanger to be spaced for accommodating the length of the clip. It is also apparent that since it is the size of the threaded portion 19 of the sleeve 18 which determines the size of the hanger bolt to which a given locking clip is adapted to be connected, said sleeve may be readily detached from the locking clip proper, by removal of the screws 22, for substitution by a sleeve having a threaded portion 19 of a different size to correspond to the size of the given hanger boltto which it is desired to con nect the locking clip proper. This feature alone is ofrconsiderable value in practice, for it enables the manufacture and use of the major portion of the locking clip of a standard size, irrespective of the various sizes of hanger bolts to which they may be called upon to cooperate.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention' could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the inventionherein' described and all statements of the scope of the invention, which as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. As an article of manufacture, a wire clip provided with separately formed means for attaching it to a hanger, the wire clip.

2. As an article of manufacture, a wire clip provided with separately formed means for attaching it to a hanger, the wire clip having a cylindrical portion formed with an annular groove, the attaching means comprising a sleeve encircling the cylindrical portion of the Wire clip having a threaded aperture therethrough registering with the annular groove, and a screw in said 7 aperture projecting into said groove to provide a swivel connection between the sleeve and the wire clip, and said screw being adjustable to lock the sleeve to the wire clip when desired.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination with a hanger bolt, of a wire clip having a cylindrical portion formed with an annular groove in its side wall, the end surface of the cylindrical portion engaging the-end surface of the hanger bolt, a member for forcing said parts together comprising a separately formed sleeve loosely encircling the cylindrical portion and having a portion encircling the hanger bolt, the portion of said sleeve which encircles the cylindrical portion of the wire clip having a threaded aperture therethrough registering with the annular groove on the cylindrical portion, and a screw in said aperture extending intosaid groove to provide a swivel connection between the sleeve and the wire clip, means whereby rotation of the sleeve about the hanger bolt will force the end of the cylindrical portion of the wire clip into frictional engagement with the opposing end of the hanger bolt, and said screw being adjustable to lock the sleeve against swivel movement, when desired.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination with a hanger bolt, of a wire clip having a cylindrical portion projecting upwardly therefrom, said cylindrical portion having an annular groove formed eXteriorly thereon, a separately formed sleeve loosely encircling said cylindrical portion and projecting thereabove into engagement with the hanger bolt, means engaging between said sleeve and the annular groove in said cylindrical portion to provide a swivel connection between said sleeve and said cylindrical portion, and means whereby rotation of said sleeve will clamp said cylindrical portion against said hanger bolt to prevent rotation of said cylindrr cal portion relatively to Said hanger bolt.

5. In a device of the class'described, the combination with a hanger bolt, of a wire clip having a cylindrical portion projecting upwardly therefrom, said cylindrical portion having an annular groove formed eX- teriorly thereon, a separately formed sleeve loosely encircling said cylindrical portion and projecting thereabove into engagement with the hanger bolt, means engaging between said sleeve and the annular groove in said cylindrical portion to provide a swivel connection between said sleeve and said cylindrical portion, means whereby rotation of said sleeve will clamp said cylindrical portion against said hanger bolt to prevent rotation of said cylindrical portion relatively to said hanger bolt, and means for fixing said sleeve to said cylindrical portion to prevent swivel movement of said sleeve relatively to said cylindrical portion.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

LOUIS STEINBERGER. Witnesses:

L. Gnssronn HANDo, NATIIALIE. THOMPSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

